Donna Blackburn prides herself on being outspoken and thinks some of the other trustees are ganging up by 'code of conducting' her

Outspoken and openly gay public School trustee Donna Blackburn has recently gone public with her harrowing story of alcoholism and sexual abuse. Blackburn visit the Ottawa Citizen to speak about her past Wednesday September 14, 2016.

Ottawa school board trustee Donna Blackburn prides herself on being outspoken, but even she agrees that a personal text she sent to fellow trustee Erica Braunovan was a mistake.

In the profanity-laden text, she accused Braunovan of enjoying white privilege and of “buying” her children.

Braunovan and her husband have two young daughters they adopted from Guyana.

The insult came during a testy exchange over the seemingly innocuous topic of school board officials touring an unused part of Broadview Public School to consider what could be done with it.

I am soooo tired of ur white pivelged bullshit. I bought a coupla kids. So ya take me on.

But at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, there can be nasty politics. And these days, Blackburn is at war with some of her colleagues. Since the board adopted a code of conduct last spring that allows trustees to discipline each other for bad behaviour, four complaints have been filed against Blackburn, including one from Braunovan over the text exchange.

“I’ve jumped through hoops trying to work with this woman,” said Braunovan. “She’s called me names so many times I can’t keep count.” But the text about her children was the last straw, Braunovan told the Citizen. “This is starting to affect my family. I have these two beautiful little girls. My husband and I fought for years to bring these girls into our home. I don’t need that kind of negativity.”

The girls, 6 and 9, have already had to deal with comments from other children about how Braunovan isn’t their “real mom” since their skin colours don’t match, she said. Braunovan and her husband have talked to their girls about some of the stereotypes surrounding adoption, and reassured them they chose to build their family that way. “It’s something that’s very sensitive to my kids.”

Wayne Cuddington / Ottawa CitizenWayne Cuddington /
Ottawa Citizen

They adopted the girls at the same time, four years ago, said Braunovan. “I’ve been a social worker my entire life. As long as there are kids out there who need a home, we wanted to (create a family) that way.”

Braunovan said she never expected she’d have to tell a fellow school board trustee not to say that adopted children are purchased.

The text exchange took a personal turn after Blackburn told Braunovan to drop the idea of touring the Broadview school property. The backdrop: Blackburn prides herself on voting in favour of rebuilding Broadview even though it wasn’t in her district, but she opposes renovating an unused older part of the school. Braunovan is the trustee for the ward where the school is located.

In the text, Blackburn warned of another “political firestorm” over Broadview. She advised Braunovan not to follow the lead of trustee Shawn Menard because he’s an “idiot all of the time.” A year ago, Blackburn got in trouble and apologized for calling Menard and other trustees “whackjobs,” which prompted the board to adopt a code-of-conduct policy.

“It is not OK for you to speak to me this way or to speak about other trustees this way to me,” Braunovan wrote.

“Well Donna that is the one sentence you won’t be able to apologize for saying enough,” Braunovan replied. “You don’t get to come back from attacking my family. I’m not taking you on.

“I have asked you to speak respectfully and you said the meanest thing you could think of,” she wrote.

“Urra fake,” Blackburn texted back.

Menard said the text exchange about Braunovan’s children is “not appropriate in any way, and deeply troubling. I hope Donna seeks out the help she needs to overcome whatever she is dealing with.”

And hopefully she’ll just shut up and not do her job because she doesn’t want to risk the embarrassment of what she’s done

Blackburn says she regrets sending the text and that it doesn’t reflect her views on adoption. She apologized by text a few days later — “Very sorry for my behaviour….no excuses” and apologized again this fall after the board hired a mediator to settle Braunovan’s complaint on the issue. “I went there in good faith, I was remorseful for what I said,” Blackburn said.

“It was not something I sincerely believe. I made a mistake. I have lots of friends who have adopted kids.”

However, Blackburn said, she refuses to be “defined by this mistake” or to let her opponents use it as ammunition to shut her up.

“She (Braunovan) is as mean-spirited as I was, for her to keep bringing this up.”

Braunovan said she decided to release the text exchange to counter allegations from Blackburn that the board’s code of conduct is being unfairly used by trustees to squelch her contrary opinions on school issues. “That’s not why I filed my complaint.”

The text exchange was in late July. Braunovan sent her complaint to Blackburn on Sept. 20. Braunovan said the text incident happened just as the family was leaving on vacation, and she spent awhile pondering what to do about it.

Blackburn maintains some trustees are ganging up by “code of conducting her.”

She says it’s no coincidence that another complaint against her from trustee Chris Ellis was also sent Sept. 20. “It was the two of them getting together and saying ‘Let’s go after her.’ And I don’t think that’s the intention of the code.”

Ellis’s complaint was over an email Blackburn sent him in September. He couldn’t immediately find a copy of the email or recall exactly what it contained — “There’s just so many of them, you know,” he said. “She’s always criticizing me.”

“I believe she called into question my thinking capacity.”

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Ellis said he decided to file a complaint because of a pattern of disrespectful behaviour by Blackburn. But he won’t do it again. “I don’t think they have any effect on Donna Blackburn, so I won’t be wasting my time or staff time or the board’s time on them.” A mediator also handled Ellis’s complaint, and Blackburn apologized, he said.

Ellis says Blackburn brings a valuable perspective to the board table but that she has become marginalized because of her dismissive attitude toward anyone who disagrees with her.

He laughed off the idea that he and Braunovan co-operated on their complaints. “Why would we collude? If I’m going to have some nefarious plot, I’d be more subtle than filing it on the same day.”

Blackburn said her email to Ellis was in response to him “basically calling me a liar to everybody” about the controversial issue of closing Rideau High School. “So I said something on Facebook, and he felt the need to tell the whole board that I was misinforming people, so I felt the need to say, ‘Well really? Blah blah blah,’ whatever I said. And then he code of conducts me. It’s like, whatever.”

Board chair Shirley Seward, citing the code of conduct stipulation that the investigation of complaints should be confidential, declined to comment.

Still to be dealt with are two other complaints against Blackburn by trustee Christine Boothby. One accused Blackburn of “publicly belligerently berating” the volunteer chair of the special education advisory committee during an argument over what should be on a meeting agenda. Boothby’s other complaint alleges that Blackburn violated the confidentiality clause by telling the Citizen about the first complaint.

Boothby has refused to comment, citing the confidentiality clause.

Blackburn says Boothby’s complaints are “frivolous and harassing” and that the board may end up spending a lot of money on them if outside investigators are hired.

She won’t keep quiet, vows Blackburn, who warned before it was adopted that the code of conduct would be used against her.

“I knew that was going to happen. It’s like, we can just keep code of conducting her, and we can hold things over her head. And hopefully she’ll just shut up and not do her job because she doesn’t want to risk the embarrassment of what she’s done. Well that’s not how I operate.”